Brightening Day
by StainlessChina
Summary: It's about Harry and Ginny. I'm still devoloping it... I just need time to write it. And I need to think up a better title, hehe.
1. In the Common Room

Harry rolled over in bed, awake. He'd been awake for a while now, he just hadn't moved at all, not wanting to disturb the others in his dorm. He decided he'd had enough of that, however, and got up.

He walked over to the window in the room, and looked out across the grounds. The sun was hitting the trees at a certain angle as it was coming up, and Harry looked down on the grass, pouring himself a glass of water from the pitcher by the window.

__

I wonder what time it is, he thought. His eyes fell on six students standing around in a circle. _It can't be that early_, he thought, _that one club for mystery lovers is meeting..._

Harry put down his glass of water, which he had not taken a sip from, and exited the dorm. He paused outside the door, then walked down the stairs to the common room and took a chair by the fireplace, which was just now burning out its last embers. Harry watched as the fire dwindled down to nothing.

A few seconds later, there was a shuffling sound on the stairs to the girls' dormitories, and Harry looked up to see Ginny Weasley in her pajamas and Alf slippers. Harry waved one hand and smiled at Ginny. She looked slightly nervous, but waved back, and started to slowly walk down the stairs.

'So what are you doing up, Ginny?' Harry asked. 'It's the holidays, we're supposed to be sleeping in, you know.'

'Then why are _you _up, Mr. Potter?' said Ginny, grinning. 'I'm up because I couldn't sleep. It was just... I don't know. Nothing, I guess. Just couldn't sleep.'

'Same with me,' Harry said. 'That, and something just seemed...unsettling?'

Ginny didn't say anything, but tried to give Harry a concerned and caring look.

'So, Gin,' said Harry, socking Ginny's knee lightly. 'What's been happening?'

Ginny shrugged. 'Same old stuff... I don't know.'

'Yeah,' said Harry. 'I never know how to answer those questions either.'

Ginny smiled, then dropped her gaze to the floor.

__

She's so cute, thought Harry to himself. _I mean...do I like her? I'd like to get to know her better..._

'Ginny,' said Harry abruptly after a few moment's silence. 'Ginny, would you like to go down to the Great Hall or wander around the castle? I think I'm going to.'

There was an instant spark behind Ginny's eyes, but she took a second to answer. 'Yeah, sounds like fun.'

'Let's go,' said Harry, standing up.

'In our pajamas?' said Ginny, smiling.

'Sure, why not?'

Ginny giggled. 'Alright. It's just that I've never been out of the common room in my pajamas.'

'You've gotta start living some time, Ginny,' Harry teased.

He walked over to the portrait hole and climbed out, Ginny on his heels.


	2. Around the School

Harry waited until Ginny was all the way through the portrait hall and by his side to start walking.

'So, what does a nice girl like you do for kicks?' Harry asked.

Ginny blushed slightly and turned her head to try and hide it. 'Oh, I guess what most people do,' she said. 'Hang out with friends, do work, follow Quidditch...'

'Hanging out with friends,' repeated Harry. 'Ah, such fun it is to be surrounded by pals.'

Ginny nodded and didn't say anything.

'I hardly see you around school. I mean, aside from the common room. Where do you and your friends stay?'

'Different places..' Ginny replied. 'Now that it's cold, we're usually in this one classroom... it's a deserted classroom on the fifth floor. It's by this statue of a really weird looking boar. We just found it one day, and walked in. Then it became our new place to hang out.'

'Ginny, hanging out in deserted classrooms, I don't know. Tsk, tsk.'

'It's not like _you _never do it, Harry,' Ginny retorted.

Harry grinned. 'I can't deny what you say.' Harry stopped walking and looked around. 'Where do you wanna go, Gin?' he asked.

Ginny's Alf slippers stopped their shuffle as she looked around too. 'Can we go to the Great Hall first, get some early breakfast, then go back somewhere?' She looked up at Harry, wondering if he'd like her idea but really not caring what she did, so long as she was by him.

'Yeah, let's do that. I'll race you.' Harry's features looked somewhat devilish.

'You're on, Potter.'

And with that, Harry and Ginny started dashing down the corridor, making quite a racket with their hollering, laughing, stomping, and trying to outdo each other. They arrived at the door to the Great Hall panting.

'I believe I beat you,' said Harry.

'You certainly did not!' Ginny hit Harry's arm.

'Miss Weasley, come to terms with yourself. It's not a _bad _thing to lose to me. After all, I'm the best.'

'You're sounding a bit like Lockhart now!' Ginny giggled.

'Well...' Harry began, but stopped. 'I think I won.'

'I think _I_ won.'

'You think a lot of things with that overactive imagination of yours, don--'

Harry was cut off by Ginny diving at him playfully, wrestling him against the wall. They were both laughing hard when Snape walked by.

'Potter, Weasley,' he barked. Ginny instantly lowered her hands and jumped back, turning a deeper shade of red than before. 'Five points from Gryffindor for disorderly conduct in the corridors. I suggest that you don't let it happen again.' Snape walked past them and into the Great Hall.

Ginny looked embarrassed. Harry noticed this, and told her reassuringly, 'Don't mind him, Gin. He's just jealous that _he _doesn't have a Weasley tickling _him_.'

Ginny didn't feel like she could comment on this, so she just ran ahead to pick food off the table. She got some toast and bacon, and Harry followed her, getting toast and eggs.

They left the Great Hall quickly, because Snape had been following them with his eyes, making sure they didn't do anything.

Back out in the corridor, food in their hands, they now discussed where to go.

'D'you have the time, Harry?' Ginny asked.

'Nope, but the Great Hall's practically empty... it's still early. Or early for the holidays. Have any ideas where we could go?'

'Do you know...where the kitchen is? Hermione said that you'd been to the kitchens, but I'd never been and...'

'Yeah, we can go to the kitchens,' Harry said, smiling. 'I'm sure Dobby'd love to meet you.'

Harry directed his and Ginny's way to the kitchens while they talked about skunks, of all things. When they got there, Harry tickled the pear and the door swung open.

At once, the house elves were upon them, asking what food they'd like, if they'd fancy some tea, would they like some biscuits. Harry told them tea would be nice, and then said that that would be all, they were just visiting. The house elves shuffled around and got the tea as fast as they could.

Dobby was over making porridge. He heard Harry and at once dropped what he was doing. 'Harry Potter has come to see Dobby!' he squeaked.

'Yes, I have,' said Harry. 'And I brought someone for you to meet. You know Ron, right?'

'Yes, Ron is very good to Dobby, sir.'

'Well, this is his sister. Dobby, meet Ginny.'

Dobby bowed low. 'Any friend of Harry Potter's is welcome here. It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am.'

Ginny laughed a bit and said, 'I've heard about you, Dobby. It's good to meet you.'

Dobby seemed excited, and smiled up at Ginny.

'Anyway, Dobby,' Harry said, 'we were just wandering the school, and decided to come and see the kitchens, and you.'

'It was very good of Harry Potter to come and see Dobby. Dobby is sorry he has only come to visit you three times, sir, it's just that Dobby has been very busy in the kitchens...'

'It's alright, Dobby. Seen anything of interest lately?'

'Dobby has not, sir, Dobby is sorry, sir. What would Harry Potter like to see?'

'Just wandering the castle with Ginny. We were wondering where we could go.'

'Good luck, sir.'

'Thanks,' said Harry. He told Dobby he'd see him later, and started walking back out towards the door, Ginny following. They exited to the bowing house elves and Harry started to pilot a course down a corridor leading closer to the dungeons.


	3. Dungeons and Back

'Is there a reason you wanted to come down this way, Harry?' Ginny asked, pulling her robes tighter around herself to keep warm. 'It's just that it's cold...'

Harry agreed, and turned into a deserted classroom. He looked around and spotted the fireplace, which looked like it hadn't really been used. _Dungeon classes are always freezing_, he thought, remembering Potions.

'_Ignitus flamma!_' Harry yelled, pointing his wand to the fireplace. Suddenly, a nice toasty fire was going, and the room soon warmed.

'Hey, when do you learn _that _spell?' Ginny asked. 'I'm in the fifth year, and I still haven't learned it...'

'I don't think they taught us that. But it's a pretty standard spell, you can find it a lot of places.'

Ginny nodded, and sat down in a ramshackle old chair near the front of the aged classroom. She looked around at the walls, seeing moving diagrams peeling off from the wall. 'What do you suppose they taught in here?' Ginny asked.

'I don't know, probably some kind of...' Harry stopped so he could observe the diagrams on the wall. 'Looks like some advanced form of potions,' he finished. 'That right there,' he said, pointing to one diagram, 'is the Polyjuice Potion.' He recognized it at once from when he had used the Polyjuice Potion in his second year.

Ginny studied the diagrams some more while Harry opened the desk drawer. In it, he found some old parchment and quills. The desk also had some orange ink in it.

'Hey, Ron would like this,' Harry said. 'Orange... like the Chudley Cannons.' He pocketed it and continued to poke around in the desk, but found nothing good.

'Goyle, Crabbe, stop being idiots, and act like normal people for once!' Malfoy's voice drifted into the classroom from the hallway, where it seemed a disgruntled Malfoy was telling his friends off.

'Sorry,' grunted one of them.

The door to the classroom was mostly closed, so Harry didn't feel a need to do anything as Malfoy passed. The sounds of the trio talking were now right outside the door when Malfoy said, 'Wait!' and pushed the door open.

'Oh,' he said, as he laid his eyes on Ginny and Harry. 'It's Potter and his girlfriend. You two should stay out of this room, you know. You shouldn't be wandering the dungeons, you could get into trouble, you know.'

'What do you want, Malfoy?' Harry asked, irritated.

'Just going to pick something up,' Malfoy said lightly, going over to a cabinet in the room and opening it, pulling out what looked like potions ingredients. 'Better be careful, Potter,' Malfoy warned. 'Don't want to get caught down here.'

Malfoy thought that'd be enough, since there wasn't really anyone else around to humiliate Harry in front of. He stalked out of the room, swishing his robes as he went.

'Stupid git,' Ginny said quietly from her chair. 'Wonder what it is he took.'

Harry wondered also, but thought it'd be too risky to look at the moment, as he heard more voices and footsteps coming down the corridor. 'Let's go,' he said.

They walked out into the hall unseen, but passed the Slytherins Harry had heard while in the classroom. The ones that could be seen hanging around Malfoy made faces at Harry as he passed on the stairs, but no remarks were said.

'Where to now?' Ginny asked when they ended up back outside the Great Hall.

'Maybe we should go back to the common room?' Harry suggested. He didn't really want to, but couldn't think of anything else.

'All right...' said Ginny reluctantly.

They headed back up to Gryffindor tower, talking about Charms lessons.

When they arrived, a few more students were up, milling around the common room. Although Harry didn't see Ron or Hermione, Ginny saw one of her friends. Harry noticed her waving at a girl with blue ribbons tied in her blonde hair, and the girl quickly looked away.

'Your friend?' Harry asked.

'Yes,' Ginny said. 'Her name's Lissa, she's a Muggle born.'

Lissa looked at Ginny and Harry through the corner of her eye, then quickly looked away again.

'Hmm,' Harry said. 'Well, I'll leave you to it. I'm going back up to my dormitory.'

Ginny nodded and walked over to her friend.

As Harry climbed up the stairs, he saw the look of delight on both Ginny and Lissa's face, and they were talking excitedly and laughing. _I wonder if they're making fun of me_, Harry wondered. But then he thought, _No, Ginny's nicer than that_, and continued up the stairs.

He pushed open the door and flopped down on his bed. He took out of his trunk a Transfiguration spellbook and started to flip through it, bored. He closed it after a few minutes, and thought about how he needed to go Christmas shopping for his friends soon. _I wonder when the next Hogsmeade weekend is. Of course, if it's not soon enough, I can just use the secret passage..._ His thoughts were interrupted by Ron waking up.

'Hey, Harry,' he said, yawning.

'You decided to wake up,' Harry replied.

'How long have _you _been up?' Ron asked. 'It's still early enough... look outside,' said Ron, pointing out the window. 'It's still early.'

Harry nodded, and Ron got out of bed and stretched. 'So what are the plans for today?' he asked.

Harry shrugged and said, 'We'll come up with something when Hermione gets up.'


End file.
